Manuka Honey, a powerful remedy for your skin woes

Bloggers and Instagrammers swear by this dark honey and use it for their skin, teeth and for minor illnesses. And with summer playing havoc with our skin, this particular honey straight from the forests of New Zealand is a perfect foil for blemishes, tanning, burns and rashes.

If you are a habitual consumer of videos by beauty gurus on YouTube, there is a high probability that some of them have spoken about the myriad benefits of the still unknown Manuka honey. Bloggers and Instagrammers swear by this dark honey and use it for their skin, teeth and for minor illnesses. And with summer playing havoc with our skin, this particular honey straight from the forests of New Zealand is a perfect foil for blemishes, tanning, burns and rashes.

It’s a great source of Amino acids, B Vitamins, Calcium, Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Mangenese, Phosphorus, Potassium and Sodium. Made by bees that feed on the flowers of the Manuka bush popularly known as Tea tree in New Zealand, it has a distinctive dark flavour and high glucose content. It’s not for nothing that beauty gurus recommend eating a teaspoonful of the honey when suffering from a sore throat or viral flu. Manuka honey is ripe with methylglyxal which is responsible for its anti-bacterial properties and which remains stable even in heat and enzymatic activity in the body. In fact, the Maori tribe of New Zealand has been using it for decades to dress wounds and treat burns.

During summer, tend to sunburns by applying a thin layer of Manuka honey which will immediately soothe the skin, reduce redness and inflammation. Since it stimulates cell renewal, it will help restore the skins pH and pull moisture towards the skin.

Long time sufferers of eczema, psoriasis can also benefit from using this topically. However, a word of caution, only use high grade Manuka honey with methylglyoxal levels of 400 mg or higher.

It can also be used as a face mask. Just wash your face and pat it dry. Apply a thin layer of the honey and let it sit for at least 30 minutes and wash off with warm water. You will be left with skin that as smooth as a baby’s bottom.

Just keep somethings in mind, before you go online and decide to order it. Globally , over 2,000 tonnes is produced, so there are a lot of fake honey which are also circulating under the name. Make sure it comes with the label of UMF (unique Manuka factor that denotes anti-bacterial strength and potency).

UMF 5-9 means low activity

UMF 10- 15 moderate activity

UMF 16+ high activity

Only buy it from reputed brands like Wedderspoon, Comvita, KIVA and Manuka Health. They may be expensive on the pocket costing somewhere around Rs 2000 to Rs 3000, but you can be sure that you have an authentic product in your hands and not a fake one.